Where to Learn about Your Ideal Customer

Almost every small business owner knows that they should be doing market research, but many don’t know how to go about it. This is especially true when it comes to learning about their ideal customer. 

Your ideal customer profile is the basis of your small business marketing. It’s based on the objective data you gather from your market, not from your own assumptions. 

How Do You Create an Ideal Customer Profile?

You need to spend time gathering information on who benefits most from your products and services in order to create the perfect profile. 

Where do you get this data? 

If you’re not sure where to start, don’t worry – we’ve got you covered! In this post, we’ll give you a few tips on how to learn more about your ideal customer.

1. Your Current Customer Base

Start by looking at your current customer base. Focus on the people who buy from you and interact with you the most. These are your biggest brand advocates, and they’re the closest to your ideal customer.

A good place to find out about your biggest brand advocates is your social media following. Identify the people who engage most with you and check out their profiles to gather demographic information. Read their content and comments to find out what’s on their mind. 

2. Online Forums and Groups

Join online forums and groups on topics related to your products and services. On these sites, you can get to know people who can benefit from your offerings and listen to and participate in conversations where people are asking questions, giving their opinions, and seeking help.

3 Keyword Search

You can learn a great deal about your ideal customer by performing keyword searches on terms related to your business. Look for user-generated content such as reviews or blog comments. 

Even better, search for hashtags on social media. Hashtags are used as topic markers and make these terms searchable. Once you start looking around, you’ll find hashtags related to your business that are trending right now. 

4 Your Competition

Another place to look for information on your target audience is your competitors. See who follows them and buys from them. Read reviews of their products. You’ll not only learn about your market and their tastes but also find out where they’re dissatisfied with your competitors and the ways you’re different.

5 Analytics and Tracking

You can get helpful indirect feedback by looking at your website analytics. Find out which web pages receive the most traffic and where visitors are spending the most time. This will reveal what content is most interesting to them. You can also use this data for planning future content to share with your audience. 

6 Your Products or Services

In addition to the feedback from your market, look closely at what you offer, what problems it solves, and how it’s unique. 

With a clear understanding of your market’s tastes and concerns, along with the services of your competitors, you should be able to see more easily how your products uniquely meet your customers’ needs. 

Meet Your Customers’ Needs

The key to your small business success is to meet the needs of your target audience. Start with a grasp of who your target audience is and the problems they face, and then you can position your services and products to meet those needs. 

Do you want to learn more about your target audience? Check out my digital marketing courses that teach you the A to Z of creating an effective ideal customer profile and helps you achieve your business goals. 

And remember you don’t need crazy tech skills, buckets of cash, or a dedicated staff to market your business, in fact, you don’t even need a lot of time. What you need is to be smart, and identifying your ideal target customer is smart!

Is Your marketing SMART? Take the quiz and find out!